Martial Artist is the Monk's Ascendancy class, known for being versatile, swift, and, most importantly, capable of shredding enemies in seconds. With this Falling Thunder Flicker build, you can play a Martial Artist that progresses quickly and clears maps so fast that your eyes can barely keep up with what's happening.
Why Use Martial Artist Falling Thunder Flicker
If you're looking for a playstyle that clears maps quickly with stylish electric dash attacks while also melting bosses with ease, this is the build for you.
The core concept of the Falling Thunder Flicker build is to generate Power Charges, build up your combo, and then unleash devastating skills. We'll use Shattering-Palm to generate Power Charges and start the combo, then finish off enemies with Falling-Thunder and Flicker-Strike.
This build takes a bit of time to understand and get used to, but once it clicks, you'll be clearing maps at incredible speed and melting bosses with ease. You won't regret starting your League with this build.
Early Progression Guide
For the early campaign, this build uses the Quarterstaff Strike as the basic attack, and Killing-Palm or Use Wing-Blast to generate Power Charges, which will further increase the damage of Falling-Thunder, your primary DPS skill.
During the early stages of the game, you can unlock Entangle to help clear groups of enemies before unleashing Falling-Thunder, and Frost-Bomb to reduce enemy resistances.
At this stage, your skill priority should be:
- Falling Thunder
- Entangle
- Killing Palm
- Frost Bomb
- Wing Blast
The basic rotation is simple: cast Entangle, then deploy Frost-Bomb, and finish enemies off with Falling-Thunder. Any surviving enemies can be cleaned up with your basic Quarterstaff Attack.
For gear, prioritize Armor over Evasion or Energy Shield to improve your survivability. After that, look for Maximum Life on your armor pieces. If you have available sockets, use gems that increase your Elemental Resistances.
Mid Campaign Progression
Once you unlock Hollow Palm Technique in the passive tree, it's time to switch to an unarmed setup. You won't need a weapon at this stage because Hollow Palm provides huge bonuses to unarmed attacks, especially if you have added flat damage or increased levels to melee skills.
Use a Wolf Form Talisman as your second weapon set to activate Pounce, giving you even more movement speed and mobility options.
At this point, you can use Storm-Wave as your main attack, as it synergizes very well with Herald-of-Thunder. Killing-Palm and Siphoning-Strike will be your primary Power Charge generators, allowing you to finish your combos with Falling-Thunder.
Hollow Focus further improves your clear speed by adding passive attacks and helping you cull enemies more efficiently with Killing-Palm.
At this stage, your gem priority should be:
- Falling Thunder
- Storm Wave
- Siphoning Strike
- Hollow Focus
For gear, start focusing more on Evasion Rating and Energy Shield, while using jewels and gear pieces to cap your Elemental Resistances. Look for Maximum Life or increased Evasion/Energy Shield % as additional bonus stats.
For gloves, it's important to have added damage to attacks or + Levels to Melee Skills, as these are key stats that scale the damage provided by Hollow Palm Technique.
Late Campaign Progression
Getting into Act 4, you can swap to the Whirling-Assault because Hollow Palm Technique starts to get overshadowed by the Quarterstaff. Remember to refund your Hollow Palm Technique passive skill.
From here, Whirling-Assault, Tempest-Bell, and Charged-Staff become your primary DPS skills. Killing Palm and Hollow Focus will be your main ways of generating Power Charges, while Hand-of-Chayula can be used at the start of fights to apply Elemental Weakness.
For your Ascendancy points, take Hollow Focus Technique first, followed by Way of the Stonefist as your second choice.
Your skill priority should be:
- Whirling Assault
- Tempest Bell
- Hand of Chayula
- Charged Staff
For gear, the priorities remain largely the same. Focus on Maximum Life and % increased Evasion/Energy Shield, then continue stacking Elemental Resistances.
Your glove choice becomes especially important at this stage because of Way of the Stonefist. Prioritize the following stats:
- Added Flat Damage
- +2 Levels to Melee Skills
- Critical Hit Chance
- Resistances
For amulets and rings, look for:
- Levels to Melee Skills
- Maximum Life
- Added Damage to Attacks
Endgame
At the endgame stage, your primary attack becomes Shattering-Palm. Socketed with support gems such as Living Lightning, Culmination, and Ailith's Chimes, it allows you to generate Power Charges on hit, which form the foundation of this build's DPS. This setup is made possible by the Martial Master node.
Once you have built up enough Power Charges, unleash devastating damage with Falling-Thunder and Flicker-Strike, depending on the situation.
The gameplay rotation is essentially that simple, making the build much easier to play compared to its earlier progression stages. However, acquiring the right gear is where the real challenge begins.
At this stage, you should focus on maximizing your Critical Hit Chance with your Quarterstaff. Important secondary stats include + Levels to All Melee Skills and Critical Damage Bonus. This is because the Breath of Aldur jewel converts flat Lightning and Fire damage into Cold damage, which synergizes extremely well with Herald of Ice.
As for armor, your priority is now stacking high Evasion Rating and Energy Shield, which is why we'll be using Forgotten Warden.
For rings, prioritize:
- Added Cold Damage
- Added Lightning Damage
- Added Fire Damage
- Added Physical Damage
These stats will significantly improve your overall damage output and scale well with the build's endgame setup.
